Category: Stray & Feral Animals

NASSAU, Bahamas––Veterinary protectionism nearly killed a
planned Bahamian street dog sterilization drive called Operation Potcake
2014, but intensive exposure by the Nassau Tribune and intervention by
prime minister Perry Christie appear to have saved it.
The international dog and cat sterilization charity Animal
Balance, the Veterinary Medical Association of the Bahamas, and the
Bahamas Humane Society on December 5, 2013 jointly announced that
Operation Potcake 2014 will proceed in January as originally scheduled.
Street dogs are called “potcakes” in the Bahamas and
elsewhere on English-speaking Caribbean islands after their habit of
licking caked peas and rice from the bottoms of food containers.
Operation Potcake debuted as a ten-day sterilization campaign
organized by Animal Balance on New Providence Island in January 2013.

WASHINGTON D.C.––Did inflated claims about cat predation on
birds give the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service political cover for granting
a 30-year exemption from prosecution to wind power developers whose
turbines kill eagles?
The exemption was announced on December 6, 2013, two weeks to
the day after Duke Energy Renewables agreed to pay $1 million in
settlement of charges resulting from the deaths of 14 golden eagles and
149 other protected birds at wind farms near Casper and Campbell Hill,
Wyoming between 2009 and earlier in 2013.
Wind turbines in the Altamont Pass east of the San Francisco Bay
area in California are believed to kill about 60 bald and golden eagles
per year. Other wind farms around the U.S. are known to have killed at
least 67 eagles since 2008.

Concerning “Ethicist addresses making euthanasia decisions in a no-kill context,” in the October 2013 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE, I find it bizarre that Jasper the Staffordshire’s fate boils down to a football score set of numbers. I’m no ethicist, but as someone intimately and actively familiar with animal shelter euthanasia for the past 43 years, it is clear to me that our industry’s spay/neuter efforts have resulted not only in fewer surplus animals but also in an unexpected but positive consequence of making the lives of dogs and cats more valuable. Read more

Editorial #2: Time for a new national wild horse policy––covering all wild horses[Photo credit: Kim Bartlett ] Data showing how many horses have been sold to slaughter per year, nationwide, can be extrapolated from readily available public records going all the way back to 1850. Throughout this time, coinciding with the advent of railways that enabled brokers to transport animals long distances to slaughter, the overwhelming majority of horses sold to slaughter have been either those at the end of their working utility to humans, or the unwanted surplus from speculative breeding. Speculative breeding rose rapidly as a source of horses sent to slaughter as employment of horses for transportation declined. Read more

Either pending legislation or ongoing litigation could bring the resumption of horse slaughter within the U.S. for human consumption this winter, or close off the possibility. Which might happen is anyone’s bet. It is even possible that court decisions will allow horse slaughter to resume for a time, only to be again stopped by Congress, as it was in 2007. Read more

DUMBARTON, Scotland––Less than two days after representatives of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds pledged to Scotland for Animals that they would fully investigate the possible alternatives to culling 40 feral goats at Inversnaid, on the banks of Loch Lomond, RSPB conservation planning officer Anne McCall announced that the killing “has ended as we have reached the target of 20 culled goats for this year.” Read more

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013:(Actually published on November 20, 2013.)

BARCELONA, BUCHAREST–– “Stray Dog Ecology: Back to the Basics” is for Dutch humane volunteer Nathalie Klinge not just the title of a talk, but a summary of her way of life. Addressing the 2013 International Companion Animal Welfare Conference, the ninth Klinge has attended but the first at which she has spoken, Klinge brought to her presentation the experience of 13 years on the road in Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, observing the lives and sometimes the deaths of street dogs from an actuarial perspective. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2000, at age 30, Klinge resolved to spend the rest of whatever time she had left to live working for animals. Klinge left her career in the life insurance industry to become a driver for eastern European animal charities, helping to relay dogs to western Europe for adoption. At first Klinge just drove, looked, and listened. But eventually Klinge realized she was recognizing realities that seemed to elude the credentialed experts, government officials, and directors of animal charities who kept failing to resolve street dog issues. Read more

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013:(Actually published on November 20, 2013.)

By Merritt Clifton

Two days after Dutch animal advocate and rescuer Nathalie Klinge addressed the ICAWC conference in Barcelona about her observations of dog population control in Romania, I tested her findings by doing 1,500 kilometers of dog-censusing in Romania myself. Read more

SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

This site is currently under construction. We apologize for any temporary inconvenience.
Please e-mail info@animalpeopleforum.org with questions or concerns, or to request any articles or issues not yet available online.